In early summer, the sunlight converges, the blue-gray rain clouds are extremely low, and the birds in the sky are also falling into the mountains and forests as quickly as possible.

In the field below, the sound of horses' hooves extended, and the fierce hoofs and roars came and went.

The dust raised on the ground was swayed and swept in the gallop of the war horses, and the cavalry who leaned out half of the body of the war horse swung out his scimitar and slashed it fiercely, and the civilians running in front of him screamed and fell in a pool of blood. A steppe cavalryman in leather armor and felt hat set fire to the thatched roof, and in the next second, the woman and child screamed miserably and ran out of it, and were chased by the surrounding steppe people, and then killed.

Hundreds of light horsemen intertwined and cut through a village in the Assyrian province, and huge flames reflected the horses running past the crowd that drove them out of the houses, flesh and heads torn apart under the blades, and the strong men fell first, then the old men..... then the white women, and the ignorant or frightened children, and the corpses were spread out, and then the knights pulled down the burning houses and buried the corpses.

Another village fell, and soon after, the cavalry, with tens or hundreds, continued to advance in other directions, and if there was resistance, or the village, they would blow their horns and gather the rest of the field before slaughtering and plundering.

In mid-May, since entering the Assyrian province, the march speed of nearly 200,000 troops has gradually slowed down, and the cavalry clusters of Wuhuan, Xianbei, Xiongnu, Kushan and Parthia wandering on the left and right flanks have received orders to carry out sweeping, not only on the way forward, but more towards the Arabian region and Armenia, which are two directions north and south, and a large number of reconnaissance cavalry.

Gongsun stopped looking at the Assyrian scholars who had been scraped and kidnapped and were drawing detailed maps of Daqin, and the officials of the translation group were constantly marking the drawn mountains, rivers, and towns with Chinese characters. In terms of treatment standards, they are much higher than when they were in Rome, and more importantly, almost all of them have settled in the East, for them, it doesn't matter who rules Rome, it's just a change of skin color.

"The governor slowed down the pace of the three armies......" Jia Xu raised his crystal clear goblet and shook the scarlet wine inside, looking at the crowd of people coming and going, Gongsun Zhi, who was holding his hand in front of the map, and his voice was flat: "Are you worried about calling Armenia and Mesopotamia?" ”

"I'm really worried."

Gongsun Zhi turned his head, then sat back on the first place, took a sip of wine: "These two places are one south and one north, if we divide the troops to recover, time is not good for us, ignore them, I am afraid that I will be stabbed in the back, how much will I gain more than I lose." After a moment, he put down the cup and raised his eyes to look at the smiling strategist: "Wenhe has a plan to teach me?" ”

Over there, the old man put down his wine glass and arched his hand with a smile: "The governor has been raised, and there are some thoughts in my heart that I am willing to analyze for the governor." ”

Since the iron chains on his hands and feet were cut off on the night of the New Year's Pass, Jia Xu's heart has been somewhat let go, far away in the far west, raising the prestige of the Han Dynasty, more or less making him sometimes proud of everyone, at this time he often takes the initiative to give advice, another reason, the old man also knows in his heart that if the three armies are defeated, he is a dying old man, under the language barrier, it is basically impossible to go back to the Han, out of the country, whether he wants to or not, he can only stand on a boat and sail in one direction.

Gongsun Zhi raised his hand and asked the dozens of translators and scholars from Assyria Province who drew the map to go out first, and then looked at Jia Xu: "Wenhe, please speak." ”

"I heard that Armenia originally belonged to the Sabbatarians, but it was taken away by force, two years is not a long time, the hearts of the people have not been attached, it is considered that the army has died in battle, and it is difficult to have the strength to fight again in a hurry, even if there is, it is only a rabble, this is to go all the way, as for Mesopotamia, now the resting Ctesiphon has been recovered, under moderation, this place naturally does not dare to move, what else is the governor worried about?"

"That's not all." Gongsun Zhi raised his wine glass and saluted, looked at the map that was gradually taking shape, narrowed his eyes, and took a sip: "Wen He, you look at the terrain above, a huge inland sea squeezes the entire land apart, and what is placed in front of us has become two roads, the emperor of Great Qin should have gathered enough troops to deal with us at this moment, and is waiting for us in front, or has already pounced on us, I learned from Markuus that the emperor of Great Qin is a soldier, and he is also a ruthless character who fought in the southern and northern wars, not to mention that Great Qin is good at battle formations, In this way, they must have laid out a wall in Asia Minor waiting for us to crash into it. ”

He got up and walked to the map, ran his finger over the ink stains that had not yet dried, and continued: "To the south, through the Arab region, around this Mediterranean Sea, this should be Egypt, a large desert, towns, sparsely populated, the army of the Great Qin people is also the least, but the desert march, fighting on horseback in the soft sand sea is like walking in a quagmire, and supplies will become a burden, these are the two roads in front of me." ”

After a pause in his words, Jia Xu, who was in the seat on the side, stood up, walked behind the wolf king with a smile, looked at the map and arched his hand: "I think the governor is thinking too much, what is the original intention of our coming to Daqin, has the governor forgotten?" ”

"Naturally, I haven't forgotten, but the battle is hard, and I have to consider the casualties of the soldiers." Gongsun Zhi twisted the ink stains on his fingertips, and walked past the scribe with his hand: "In the Great Qin domestic war, even if they are defeated a few times, they can reorganize their troops, but we can't, if we lose once, the military spirit will be reduced by one point, and the family caravan is all snobbish, once the situation is not good, it will be a devastating blow to the entire Western Expeditionary Army, and Anxi and Guishan can fight with us, not to see that we are invincible, so they will follow to pick up the benefits, if they are defeated, they will run faster than anyone else." ”

As the commander of an army, especially in the far west, the pressure on the commander is extremely great, not only the concern of the morale of the army, but also the supply of casualties is an extremely important part, and it cannot show the slightest sign of defeat, which is also the pressure that Gongsun Zhi can't open to others at all.

“…… That's why he said that the governor thought too much. The old man followed, came to the tent and looked at the gloomy clouds, and lowered his voice: "The army is to be used for war, why should the governor spare human lives, there is a plan, although it is a bit risky, but maybe you can try, the governor is willing to listen?" ”

The bean-sized raindrops snapped and fell on the top of the tent and splashed.

***********

Drops of rain fell to the ground, and mixed with the rain was a pair of swift steps running past here.

The young man's figure occasionally stopped at the entrance of the tent nearby, and took out a small wooden box that was hidden, and looked at it again and again, which was full of candied fruits, preserved fruits, and snacks, and the most satisfying of them was a necklace he had received, with a thumb-sized sapphire in the middle of a carved circle, which was very beautiful.

"Lingqi will definitely like it." Closing the lid of the box again, the young man smiled and wiped the water stains on his face, covered the wooden box under his deep clothes, raised his arm against the not too big raindrops, and hurriedly ran towards the barracks with the Lu character flag not far ahead.

This young man is none other than Lu Xun.

In front of him, the tall and mighty figure was patrolling all parts of the Bingzhou military camp with the swarthy and silent general and several personal soldiers, Lu Bu opened the curtain and looked at the furnishings in the soldier's tent, and then pulled out the weapon on the waist of the guard to check whether there were gaps or damages.

"If the soldier's armor and weapons are damaged, report it immediately, and then another batch of new and old ones will be handed over to the baggage battalion, and they will know how to repair them."

"Yes." Gao Shun replied with words like gold.

Lu Bu inserted the ring head knife back into the soldier's waist, dragged the cloak and continued to walk forward: "However, the war is all done by Xianbei, Wuhuan, and the Huns, even if the weapons are sparse, they don't have a chance to ..... right, why haven't you seen Lingqi today, have you ever seen her?" ”

"I saw it at noon, and I should have been in my tent."

When Lu Bu, who was walking in front, was about to say something, his voice stopped suddenly, his thick eyebrows slowly wrinkled, Gao Shun's eyes behind him also condensed, he reached out and held the handle of the knife on his waist, Lu Bu waved his hand, took a step, and then raised his foot. The figure in purple dark clothes on the opposite side was sneaky, looking around at the surrounding tents, and while retreating, he muttered: "Remember to inquire clearly..... what is the red feather is, why is there no ...... Hey—"

The muttered words suddenly rose, Lu Xun threw himself forward with the wooden box, fell to the ground, covered his buttocks and struggled to get up quickly, and was about to identify himself, but he suddenly swallowed back the words that he was not a fine work, and when his eyes were fixed, his handsome face turned pale: "Wen ...... Wenhou ...... What a coincidence..... ...... Why are you here? ”

"This is a certain military camp, why do you think I'm here?" Lu Bu was tall, standing in front of Lu Xun with an expressionless face, looking at the other party's bulging chest, his eyes narrowed: "..... then what are you doing here?" ”

"Xun is here to find ..... to find Ling......"

"Huh?" Lu Bu raised his eyebrows.

The moment he dragged out the long sound, Lu Xun already felt a huge sense of oppression, and hurriedly took out the wooden box on his chest and held it in his hand: "Xun passed by outside and picked up this wooden box..... this wooden box is ..... very chic, so I came to look for it, who lost it." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, his hand suddenly emptied, Lu Bu pinched the wooden box in his hand and waved at him: "I will look for it for you, you can go." ”

"Naxun said goodbye."

The young man bowed his hand respectfully, and slowly turned away, his eyes still looking around: "Where is it...... It's so hard to find ......" At this time, the majestic voice behind him was like a lion's roar: "What are you trying to do!" ”

Lu Xun was so frightened that he hit a spirit and hurriedly ran up. Lu Bu stared at his back and disappeared outside the gate, and threw the wooden box in his hand to Gao Shun beside him without looking at it: "Uneasy and kind, take it and divide it." ”

"Huh?"

When Gao Shun was surprised, a tent not far in front of him lifted the curtain, and the girl in the red skirt came out with the red feather on the helmet and tilted her head: "Dad, who did you seem to hear you yelling at just now?" ”

"A disobedient soldier." Lu Bu said with a smile, noticing what the girl was holding in her hand: "What are you doing when you take this down?" ”

"Oh, I hung it for a few days, and it was a little dirty, Lingqi took it in and wiped it, and was about to hang it up again." Lu Lingqi raised the red feather in her hand, turned around and tied it to a rope next to the tent curtain, which was used to identify herself, so as to prevent some soldiers from going to the wrong camp.

"It's raining, let's go into the tent and rest, and come out to eat with my father later." After speaking, Lu Bu walked away with Gao Shun, who was holding the wooden box.

How weird daddy is today.

Standing at the mouth of the tent, Lu Lingqi tilted her head and walked away suspiciously.......

It was also in the quiet and ordinary rainy day for everyone that this war was decided, and in the middle tent, the old man named Jia Xu whispered calmly in the ear of Gongsun Zhi, and soon after, the herald with the order secretly rushed on the road on the rainy day.

Two large armies will meet on the path of both sides, and the malice they harbor will eventually meet the same malice brought by the other side.......